1. What do you do with a BA in English?

I went to see Avenue Q – a musical about a puppet with an English degree and no purpose in life – when I was half way through an English degree.

It is a bit of a depressing thought that the hours you are putting in watching Netflix working hard in the library might get you nowhere in terms of employment or a general life purpose. But I didn’t have much time to think about that – there were pyjamas to be worn and a fortnightly lecture to go to.

I had, however, had the time to decide that I wanted to be an editor. And despite the quite reasonable assumption that studying books and words = working in books and words, I would discover publishing isn’t the preserve of us literary types who know that Ulysses is very good and Twilight is very bad.* Because over those three years lots of other people have been reading and loving books as well. I’ve met people in publishing with all sorts of degrees – Philosophy, Celtic Studies and Chemistry to name a few. And there are the people in publishing who have degrees actually in Publishing. And I’ve even known a few people at two of the companies I’ve worked for who got assistant roles without any degree, though admittedly this is rare.

I don’t imagine many people do look at their degree in terms of what it is going to get them. If you are going to spend all that money studying English, chances are you really love books and words. So study the thing you love – it’s all the other things you will do that will get you the job.

2. I’m free!

The day has come. You’ve worn the silly gown, got that photo of you holding the plastic scroll that only your mum likes (even your granny says you look "a bit smug") and you’re locked into years of debt. "I’m free!" you yell.

And you are – because you will be working for no money. Unfortunately there is still a lot of unpaid work experience in publishing. And it can clinch you the job – usually if you are there around the time a vacancy comes up. And it is entirely unfair.

But if you can’t afford to work unpaid for months because you actually need to eat and live in a house, then there are ways of getting in. I did do some work experience placements, but I genuinely don’t think that was what got me my job. In my spare time I reviewed books for Armadillo Magazine, started my own book blog (mainly read by my mum), interviewed authors and reported on book events. All these things get you involved in the world of publishing (especially reviewing/blogging, which is brilliant for knowing the market) and contribute to your lurking presence (see below).

For me, getting into publishing was a slow process of turning the thing I did for fun in my free time into my job. And if it hadn’t worked out and books were still just my hobby, it would still be rather fun. 

3. Know your heat pumps

In my first summer as a graduate of book reading I asked my temp agency if they had anything slightly related to publishing. I ended up in the circulation department of a Business to Business magazine. After six weeks of phoning people and telling them I was from Heating and Plumbing Monthly (strangely not many of them cared), I got a job as editorial assistant on Public Sector and Local Government Building magazine.

Some people might have found it entertaining that my entry into the glamorous world of journalism involved writing articles on heat pumps and drains. But it was a brilliant first job. The magazine was very small, so right from the beginning I was editing, proofreading and writing articles. I also got to attend the launch of a new sewage valve at the House of Commons. And I nearly met Zac Efron. Even if the subject isn’t your passion (although I do remain fond of heat pumps) it is still rather satisfying shaping words into what you hope is the best they can be, so do look far and wide for that first job.

And, most importantly, if anyone ever says to you, "are you here to meet Zac Efron?" say "YES I AM", not "no, I am here for the launch of a steel window frame", because if you say that then they make you leave.

4. The art of lurking

It is ‘who you know’ – but not in a horrible way. In a nice ‘we all love books and talking about them, preferably with wine and crisps’ way. At the beginning of it all I didn’t know anyone in publishing. Through doing the reviews and going to launches I met publishing people. I asked them about their jobs and for advice on getting a job in children’s books. I got my job now through reviewing Catnip books on my blog and then getting to know the previous editor over Twitter. So when she was able to hire an assistant she already knew that we’d work well together.

Publishing networking is great because you can talk about books rather than yourself. You can get across your tastes, your passion for stories and your assessments of what is being published without having to think of ways to get into conversation that you are very good at taking the initiative or saying, ‘oh look I noticed a thing over there with my VERY GOOD ATTENTION TO DETAIL’.

5. Started from the bottom, now we still stuff envelopes

So you’ve got that dream editorial role. You are basically Simon Cowell (if Simon Cowell was on £18,000 a year, had to move home with his parents and still hadn’t grasped basic cooking skills) sorting the literary gems from the deluded trash that is only there for us to point and laugh at. Well, perhaps you’ll get to that after you’ve made the coffee, done that big mail out and sorted out the filing.

Catnip is about as small as a publisher gets (sometimes a team of just me), so the less glam admin tasks will always be on my to do list. When I started they were my to do list, because I needed to learn how to be an editor (and be keeping myself useful and not a complete money drain on my boss). No matter the jobs and copy-editing courses you’ve done, when you start at a new publisher, with new authors and a new list to get to know, you are starting from the bottom.

It’s exciting just to be involved in getting books out there, and then the even more exciting things start happening, like getting to actually do an edit – to go through a story in detail, prodding about and asking questions and then leaving, with no one ever knowing you were there. Then, when you do get to the point where you are commissioning the books, you realise that lots and lots of people are very good at writing, lots of stories deserve to be out there and that Simon has it easy. Best do another tea round before you make any decisions.    

 

*Okay, so maybe I haven’t read Ulysses. But I’ve heard it is very good. And I’ve only seen three of the Twilight films and read the first book (for cultural interest reasons of course).